Fight fees tough to recoup

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Feb. 24, 1998 | 9:49 a.m.

The Ike Quartey vs. Pernell Whitaker fight is set for April 25 at the Thomas & Mack Center and the bout will be formally announced Thursday at a press conference in New York City.

Now do the math.

Insiders say Caesars Palace paid an $800,000 site fee to land the event. Add on the basic T&M one-night rental cost of $75,000. Now tack on another $75,000 for the arena personnel and security, and the grand total is almost $1 million.

Here's the kicker: Quartey vs. Whitaker has only limited appeal. While Caesars undoubtedly anticipates a big crowd, there are those who feel the fight won't draw more than 2,000 paid fans.

Let's say it draws 5,000. At a random $50 per head, that's $250,000 in gate receipts. Even at $100 per head, that's $500,000.

In either case, Caesars may not be retrieving that $1 million investment.

On a less ominous note, former Las Vegas Silver Streaks coach Sonny Allen reports that he has accepted a job as assistant coach with the new Detroit franchise in the Women's National Basketball Association. "I'm going to coach the same way I always have and I think that's why they wanted me," Allen said of coaching women for the first time in what is a 31-year coaching career. "We may not be able to have dunks and alley-oop plays, but coaching is coaching. They say the women are even easier to coach because they're willing to learn. I'm excited about it." Allen, who earlier this season was on the bench of the NBA's Dallas Mavericks as an assistant coach (until head coach Jim Cleamons was fired), is an offensive specialist who coached the now-defunct Silver Streaks in the World Basketball League. He heads to Detroit in May and the WNBA season opens in June. He was hired by noted women's star and current Detroit head coach and general manager Nancy Lieberman-Cline, who met Allen while she was playing at Old Dominion and he was coaching the men's team there. ... The Showtime cable TV network is making a movie on the life of golfer Tiger Woods that will debut in early April. Khalil Kain stars.

The closest Nevada came to having a representative in the Nagano Olympics was skier Jonna Mendes of South Lake Tahoe. She finished 32nd in the Super G, 17th in the downhill and 14th combined. ... A Western motif, including roaming buffalo, rodeos and barbeque, is being planned for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City. ... While Nagano was bombarded with bad weather, Salt Lake City officials said they had "two or three" correspondingly bad-weather days in Utah during the Olympic time period. ... Nevada figures to prosper from the proximity of the 2002 Olympics and so does Idaho, which forecasts $150 million in extra revenue as the result of the Salt Lake City Games. ... U.S. men's hockey team member Keith Tkachuk on shutting down the NHL for 17 days so those players could comprise Olympic rosters: "It was a waste of time." ... It just seems like UNLV has the worst women's basketball team in the country. In truth, this week's RPI has the Lady Rebels at No. 230 (of 300). ... Ten percent of the players in the NBA were traded last week. ... Noted country music band Sawyer Brown is at the Stardust this week (Wednesday through Sunday) and its lead singer, Mark Miller, played a few games last season in the Continental Basketball League with the Fort Wayne Fury.

Unless the Thomas & Mack Center is jampacked for a UNLV game in the WAC tournament next week, the Rebels appear as if they'll go the entire season without a home sellout. The building seats 18,500; the Rebels' best crowd was 17,490 for UCLA in December. For that matter, the Rebels didn't have a complete sellout last season either. ... This is low: John Clark, an Arena Football League player with the Orlando Predators, admits to stealing and spending $3,500 in checks donated to the team and earmarked for youth football leagues. ... Las Vegas baseball fans can expect to see former major-league star Rob Dibble pitching for the Stars this spring. Now 34, Dibble didn't play last year but was recently signed by the San Diego Padres and is ticketed to begin the season with the Stars. He pitched in two All-Star games and helped Cincinnati to the 1990 world title, averaging 1.39 strikeouts per inning that glorious season. ... An even greater old pitcher, Nolan Ryan, wants to buy the Jackson, Miss., team in the Texas League and move it to Austin. ... The record for the youngest person to ever bowl a sanctioned 300 game was snapped last week. At 10 years, 6 months, 27 days, Josey LaRocco of Louisville broke the previous standard by 40 days.

Soccer's ruling body, FIFA, has monthly world rankings and it currently has the United States at a much-too-high No. 12. "It's a nice gesture," said U.S. national team coach Steve Sampson, aware that his team likely doesn't deserve it in light of its 2-0 loss to No. 25 Netherlands last Saturday in Los Angeles. ... Laurie Brower, a player on the LPGA tour, carries a picture of a missing child on her golf bag every week. ... Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino has a horse, Halory Hunter, that he hopes to run in the Kentucky Derby. Nick Zito trains the colt, which is due to run March 14 in the Florida Derby. ... Vijay Singh has made an incredible 49 consecutive cuts in PGA Tour events; the next longest current streak is former UNLV star Skip Kendall at 14. ... Conversely, one-time tour star Chip Beck missed the cut at last week's tournament in Tucson and has now missed an exasperating 29 consecutive cuts. ... Less than a week after fibbing -- as he's prone to do on any touchy subject -- and saying his injured hand "is healing fast," Oscar De La Hoya had his Atlantic City fight with Patrick Charpentier pushed back for a second time. Once scheduled for Feb. 28 and then moved to March 14, it's now on for June 13.